The chicken-wing robbers weren’t caught red-handed, but they were caught hot-sauce-handed, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

The complaint says that on May 31, a deliverer for Checkerboard Pizza on Arcade Street was taking an order of chicken wings to the 800 block of East Geranium Avenue in St. Paul when he was approached by two young males sitting near the address.

The two asked the deliverer, identified in the complaint as CC, if he was from Checkerboard, the complaint said. When he said he was, one male brandished a silver handgun while the other dug through the deliveryman’s pockets, the complaint said.

The other man took about $80, the deliverer’s wallet and the wings, the complaint said.

The police investigation began when an officer spotted CC speeding away from the area, the complaint said.

After interviewing CC, police traced the call used to order the chicken wings to an apartment in the 800 block of Rose Avenue, the complaint said. That’s where officers spoke to a 16-year-old, identified at TS, and his stepbrother, Karheem Shaquil Kirk, 19, the complaint said.

“Officers patted TS down and noted his hands were slimy and sticky, and he smelled of hot sauce commonly used by restaurants on chicken wings,” the complaint said.

After police put the teenagers in a squad car, “the two spoke, and TS said ‘he should have washed his hands,’ ” the complaint said.

A search of the apartment turned up a Checkerboard Pizza receipt listing an address on Geranium Avenue, a silver 9mm handgun and chicken bones, according to the complaint.

The pizza deliverer also identified TS and Kirk as the robbers, the complaint said.

Kirk declined to talk to police, but TS admitted to the robbery, saying he and Kirk were hungry but neither had money for food, the complaint said.

The complaint charges Kirk with first-degree robbery. He could not be reached for comment.

The complaint said TS and Kirk are being investigated for other robberies.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office is reviewing charges against the juvenile in the case, an office spokesman said.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report. Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560.

Richard has written the only newspaper correction/clarification at the Pioneer Press in the form of a limerick, and is responsible for the first use of "snot rocket" in the paper. In the furtherance of journalism, he has flown on the Goodyear Blimp, driven the Wienermobile, was mistaken for a serial killer, appeared at a Saints game dressed as a urine specimen mascot costume, helped a Lutheran pastor build her coffin and once won the Wisconsin Wife Carrying Championship. He was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

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